A Forum for Orthodox Jewish thought on Halacha, Hashkafa, and the social issues of our time.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

The ‘Emes Ve-Emunah’ Seminar

Rabbi David Zvi Hoffman (1843-1921)

Torah Musings, Gil Student’s e-magazine, features an article today by Shmuel
Winearz. It describes and analyzes a recent seminar whose agenda I think reflected much
of the subject matter often discussed here. In fact I could almost call it the
Emes Ve-Emunah seminar.

Here is how Rabbi Winearz described it:

17 promising young men (average age in the late twenties)
who spent significant time in yeshivos such as Ner Israel, Mir
& Shaar Hatorah (and one person who took an uncommon path from Bais
Hatalmud to Bar-Ilan) to spend a week immersed in non-standard Torah
study, engaging with the contemporary internal and external issues that face
our Torah communities. Led by R. Yitzchak Adlerstein, R. Mark Gottlieb and R.
Jonathan Rosenblum, the program began each day with a presentation on the weltanschaung of various Torah thinkers, some of whom are often neglected during the standard
yeshiva zman, including R. Samson Raphael Hirsch, R. Yisrael Salanter, R.
Yosef Dov Soloveitchik and R. Avraham Yitzchak Kook…

Issues including rational versus mystical approaches to
Judaism, the proper role of academic Jewish studies (such as the traditionalist Wissenschaft of
R’ David Zvi Hoffman) and how to relate to the non-Orthodox and gentile worlds
were raised and a genuine milchamtah shel torah (Torah battles for the
sake of Heaven) echoed through the Glen Cove Mansion in Long Island where the
seminar was held.

As if this were not enough, there were presentations made by non Jewish experts in various secular fields and therefore had no particular
Jewish agenda. So that there expertise was not filtered through the prism of Torah
per se, but absorbed by the minds of the participants who were indeed infused
with Torah. This is the way it should be done.
It is the Torah U’Mada way. And it is the way that Yeshiva University
runs it’s academic side. When Dr. Bernard Revel founded Yeshiva College (Yeshiva
University’s progenitor) he insisted that the university be on par with the
best of the secular universities. When challenged about how he could allow
subjects to be taught that contained within them possible heresy, he answered that the Torah truths
they learned in the morning enabled them to counter any possible heresies
that might be taught in the afternoon.

Imagine for a moment what it must be like for traditional Yeshiva
students to study someone Like R’ David Zvi Hoffman. R’ Hoffman studied philosophy, history, and oriental
languages and received his doctorate from a university in Pressburg. He is also known for his attempts to refute Wellhausen’s
Documentary Hypothesis. Documentary Hypothesis posits that
it ‘was derived from originally independent, parallel and complete narratives,
which were subsequently combined into the current form by a series of redactors
(editors)’.

Lest anyone think that R’ Hoffman was some kind of heretic or near
heretic, he was actually one of the biggest rabbinic personalities of his time
- known for his great piety and moral conduct.
And as if that weren’t enough he was also an original member of the Agudah
Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah! And yet by
delving into subjects like bible criticism he was criticized by contemporaries like R’
Samson Raphael Hirsch – considering his work to contain heresies.

My guess is that most (if not all) of the 17 participants in
this symposium never heard of R’ David Zvi Hoffman.

This is a very positive development and my hat is off to the
sponsors, organizers, and participants of this event. I wish I could have been
there. We need to broaden the horizons of the greater Orthodox world beyond the
parameters of Modern Orthodoxy. This event seems to have been geared towards
that end. And for good reason. As the author notes we live in an era where
information on any subject is available at your fingertips in a matter of seconds.

The current response to this among some on the right is to
try and force their constituents to collectively bury their heads in the sand.
That clearly will not… and is not working. Symposia like this counters that
notion and develop minds to encounter and properly deal with ‘what’s out there’.
And maybe eventually bring it into the Yeshiva classroom.

Or will they? I can’t help but feeling that this kind of
symposium will be looked down upon by Charedi leaders. They may very well feel
that the true believers will ignore all the stuff that’s ‘out there’ and focus
purely on the Torah they learn. If one
goes into any Right wing Yeshiva like Mir or Lakewood, one would be hard
pressed to find anyone there who would be interested in pursuing this kind of
thought.

They very well may think that such studies are a waste of
time… that the future of Judaism lies with them and their own children that
will never be exposed to ‘what’s out there’ and focus purely on Torah the way
they do. They will assume that the Yeshivos they send their children to will ‘do
their job’ and teach their children to ignore the outside world, just like thy
do.

But I think the reality is that many of their children will
be exposed one way or another. The ‘head in the sand’ approach may work for
some of them. But it won’t work for most of them. They should follow the
example of those 17 young men and promote this idea rather than discounting it,
or worse, condemning it.

How will their hearts and minds be changed? I don’t know.
But it would be nice to see the organizers convince the Roshei Yeshiva of the
great right wing Yeshivos like Lakewood and Mir to publicly support such
symposia and even participate in them. If that happens, we will have a far
better future for Orthodox Judaism. A Judaism which will in the end be far more
inclusive and appealing to much wider range of Jews than is currently the case.

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About Me

My outlook on Judaism is based mostly on the teachings of my primary Rebbe, Rabbi Aaron Soloveichik from whom I received my rabbinic ordination. It is also based on a search for spiritual truth. Among the various sources that put me on the right path, two great philosophic works stand out: “Halakhic Man” and “Lonely Man of Faith” authored by the pre-eminent Jewish philosopher and theologian, Rabbi, Dr. Joseph B. Soloveitchik. Of great significance is Rabbi, Dr. Norman Lamm's conceptualization and models of Torah U’Mada and Dr. Eliezer Berkovits who introduced me to the world of philosophic thought. Among my early influences were two pioneers of American Elementary Torah Chinuch, Rabbis Shmuel Kaufman and Yaakov Levi. The Yeshivos I attended were Yeshivas Telshe for early high school and more significantly, the Hebrew Theological College where for a period of ten years, my Rebbeim included such great Rabbinic figures as Rabbis Mordechai Rogov, Shmaryahu Meltzer, Yaakov Perlow, Herzl Kaplan, and Selig Starr. I also attended Roosevelt University where I received my Bachelor's Degree - majoring in Psychology.